"As the spouse of the country`s representative in ASEAN, who resides in Jakarta, we are not just ordinary spouses, because we indirectly support the ASEAN vision towards AEC by 2015."
Jakarta (Antara News) - Malaysia has handed over the ASEAN Womens Circles (AWC) Presidency to Myanmar for the 2014-2015 chairmanship period.

The former 2013-2014 AWCs president, Datin Rusnah Ismail, from Malaysia remarked during the handing over ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat Building here on Friday that the role of ASEAN women will grow more in line with the ASEAN Economic Communitys (AEC) goal by 2015.

"I do believe that the ASEAN women have a significant role to play in achieving the ASEAN communitys goal, where all ASEAN people feel part of one large community, through supporting people-to-people contact, which is in line with the ASEAN policy as a multilateral organization," Datin Rusnah Ismail noted.

The new AWCs President Sabai Win from Myanmar emphasized that the ASEAN women should play a greater role in promoting AEC among the community in the ten ASEAN member states.

"As the spouse of the countrys representative in ASEAN, who resides in Jakarta, we are not just ordinary spouses, because we indirectly support the ASEAN vision towards AEC by 2015," Sabai asserted.

Sabai explained that despite the indirect support for the ASEAN policy, the women circle also allowed all the ASEAN women to promote their country among the ASEAN member states.

"For example, as a citizen of Myanmar, I would like to introduce and promote my country to other women in the ASEAN circle and also learn about other ASEAN countries from them. This implies that we support the people-to-people contact among the ASEAN member states," she added.

As it is a well-known fact that the word of mouth is a far more effective means of promotion, Sabai highlighted the role of the upcoming AWC events under her presidencys term, that include ASEAN education, food and cultural festival, and bazaar for fund raising.

"We are all ASEAN women and we need to build this circle to focus on social and educational issues, particularly for women and children. Therefore, I hope that during my term as the president of AWC, I can do more to help them," she stated.

The AWC was founded in 1975 by Nelly Adam Malik, the wife of former Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Adam Malik. The AWC was created to promote mutual understanding and cooperation among the ASEAN women and to acquaint its members and the general public of the high ideals and objectives of the ASEAN.

As of now, the AWC has 150 members who are the wives of ASEAN representatives and wives of the ASEAN countries ambassadors in Indonesia. Madame Sranya Natalegawa, the wife of current Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa, is the chief patron of AWC. (*)

Reporter: Azi Fitriyanti
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2014